The Scottish Coalition for Young Runaways welcomes today’s launch of a pioneering pilot programme to support young people who flee from home in Grampian. This pilot follows recommendations made by the National Working Group on Young Runaways to the Scottish Government in 2008 and is an important step in rolling out a specific programme to support the estimated 9,000 young people who runaway in Scotland every year.
The Grampian pilot will be opened by Adam Ingram MSP, Minister for Children and Early Years, and will test out different methods and approaches to carry out ‘Return Home Welfare Interviews’ for young runaways. Grampian Police will carry out these interviews which are seen as an important opportunity to help children and their families to access help.
The interviews will check a child is safe on their return home and to try to find out what may have caused them to run, what might have happened to them during their time running from home and what can be done to prevent a young person from running in the future.
The Scottish Coalition for Young Runaways, led by Aberlour, commissioned research (1) in 2008 which showed that the majority of local authorities across the country do not provide specific services for vulnerable young runaways, despite detailed guidance from the then Scottish Executive in 2003.
The Scottish Government responded to the Coalition’s call for a national strategy for young runaways by setting up a National Working Group for Young Runaways, which has since reported a series of recommendations for strategic action.
The group identified the need for improvements in the provision of emergency accommodation for young runaways, more detailed information about the numbers of young people who flee from home and the need for revised national guidance in this area.
Research carried out by Aberlour (2) also revealed that every year one in nine of Scotland’s children run away before the age of 16, with around 50% of these 9,000 young people and children running away from an environment of abuse and neglect at home. Around 1,500 will be physically and / or sexually assaulted whilst running, and girls aged 14 to 15 will be most likely to run.
The Grampian pilot, led by Grampian Police, will help to discover the best way of ensuring that children and young people who have previously run away and are returning to their home can access support by using different models of interviews. Their impact will be measured in terms of the help that they deliver to children, young people and their families and the Coalition hopes that once there is evidence to highlight the best way to deliver interviews, the model could be replicated across Scotland.
Bryan Evans, Assistant Regional Director from Aberlour, Chair of the Scottish Coalition and member of the National Working Group, says:
“The Scottish Government’s acceptance of all the recommendations made by the National Working Group on Young Runaways last year has the potential to significantly improve the lives of many vulnerable children. The Scottish Coalition for Young Runaways and Aberlour Child Care Trust support these actions in full and indeed are, when possible and appropriate, supporting implementation. The Grampian Pilot is a good example of how partnership between the Police, voluntary organisations, local authorities and the Scottish Government is helping to provide evidence of best practice.
“Much work is needed in the coming months and years to ensure that young people all over Scotland can get the help they need before they run away, and that if they do run, there are greater chances of them being cared for and protected, and less chance of them being assaulted or exploited.”
Melanie Stone, from Barnardo’s Scotland’s Young Runaways Service in Aberdeen, said:
“Barnardo’s Scotland is delighted to extend and develop their successful partnership working with Grampian Police in this innovative and exciting pilot initiative. In Aberdeen, joint work between Barnardo’s Scotland and Grampian Police with young runaways has been underway since 2003 and we believe many children and young people have benefitted from the support offered by this dedicated service, and are safer as a result.
“The pilot initiative focuses on improving the interviewing of young people after they have been missing from their home or placement. We recognise that we are better able to support young people and keep them safe when we have more open communication with them. Barnardo’s Scotland is also proud to be part of the Scottish Coalition for Young Runaways and is pleased to contribute to the development of work with young runaways throughout Scotland.”
Notes to editors:
(1) The Scoping study was conducted by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Stirling. It examined the provision of services to young runaways by local authorities and Area Child Protection Committees.
(2) Aberlour published “Missing Out, Young Runaways in Scotland” in 2002. It is based on research carried out with over 3,000 children and young people and more than 40 agencies that are involved with runaways in six contrasting areas of Scotland
(3) A range of statistics about runaways in Scotland:
• 1 in 9 of Scotland’s children run away before the age of 16 – this amounts to 9,000 children running away each year including those who have run away previously
• Each year there are 11,000-12,000 incidents of children running away in Scotland
• 1 in 6 young runaways are physically and /or sexually assaulted whilst running away
• 28% of young runaways slept rough on their last occasion
• 68% of young runaways are not reported missing to the police
• 50% of young people who run away state that maltreatment figures prominently in their lives and was associated with them running away
Figures taken from Wade, J (2002) Missing Out: Young Runaways in Scotland - Aberlour Child Care Trust and Rees, G and Lee, J (2005) Still Running II. The Children’s Society.
(4) Make up of coalition
1 in 9, The Scottish Coalition for Young Runaways is supported by Aberlour, Barnardo’s, Streetwork, ACPOS, Childline, ADSW, Stop It Now, Shelter, the Scottish Council for Single Homeless and the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration